24 Cont. Persuasion - Read By Stephanie Poppins

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Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

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Persuasion by Jane Austen Volume 2,

Chapter 11,

Continued Have you finished your letter?

Said Captain Harville.

Not quite,

A few lines more.

I shall have done in five minutes,

Captain Wentworth replied.

There is no hurry on my side.

I'm only ready whenever you are.

I'm in very good anchorage here.

Captain Harville smiled at Anne.

I'm well supplied and want for nothing.

No hurry for a signal at all.

Well,

Miss Elliot,

Lowering his voice,

As I was saying,

We shall never agree,

I suppose,

Upon this point.

No man and woman would,

Probably,

But let me observe that all histories are against you,

All stories,

Prose and verse.

If I had such a memory as Benwick,

I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument,

And I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy.

Songs and proverbs all talk of woman's fickleness,

But perhaps you will say these were all written by men.

Perhaps I shall,

Said Anne.

Yes,

If you please,

No reference to examples in books.

Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story.

Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree.

The pen has always been in their hands.

I will not allow books to prove anything.

But how shall we prove anything?

We never shall.

We never can expect to prove upon such a point.

It's a difference of opinion which does not admit a proof.

We each begin,

Probably,

With a little bias towards our own sex,

And upon that bias build every circumstance in favour of it which has occurred within our own circle,

Many of which circumstances may be precisely such as cannot be brought forward without betraying confidence or,

In some respect,

Saying what should not be said.

Ah,

Cried Captain Harville in a tone of strong feeling,

If I could but make you comprehend,

Anne,

What a man suffers when he takes a last look at his wife and children,

And watches the boat that he has sent them off in,

As long as it is in sight,

Then turns away and says,

God knows whether we shall ever meet again.

And then,

If I could convey to you the glow of his soul when he does see them again,

When coming back after a twelve-month's absence,

And perhaps obliged to put into another port,

He calculates how soon it be possible to get them there,

Pretending to deceive himself and saying,

They cannot be here till such and such a day,

But all the while hoping for them twelve hours sooner,

And seeing them arrive at last,

As if heaven had given them wings by many hours sooner still.

If I could explain to you all this,

Anne,

And all that a man can bear and do,

And glories to do,

For the sake of these treasures of his existence,

I speak,

You know,

Only if such men as have hearts.

Then Captain Harville pressed his own heart with emotion.

Oh,

Cried Anne eagerly,

I hope I do justice to all that's felt by you,

And all who resemble you.

God forbid that I should undervalue the warmth and faithful feelings of any of my fellow creatures.

I should deserve utter contempt if I dare to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by women.

No,

I believe you capable of everything great and good in your married lives.

I believe you equal to every important exertion and every domestic forbearance,

So long as,

If I may be allowed the expression,

So long as you have an object.

I mean,

While the woman you love lives and lives for you.

All the privilege I claim for my own sex is that of loving longest when existence or when hope is gone.

She could not immediately have uttered another sentence.

Her heart was too full,

Her breath too much oppressed.

You are a good soul,

Cried Captain Harville,

Putting his hand on her arm quite affectionately.

There is no quarrelling with you,

And when I think of Benwick,

My tongue is tied.

Their attention was called towards the others.

Mrs Croft was taking leave.

Here,

Frederick,

You and I part company,

I believe,

Said she.

I'm going home and you have an engagement with your friend.

Tonight we may have the pleasure of all meeting again at your party.

She turned to Anne.

We had your sister's card yesterday,

And I understood Frederick had a card too,

Though I did not see it.

And you are disengaged,

Frederick,

Are you not,

As well as ourselves?

Captain Wentworth was folding up a letter in great haste and either could not or would not answer fully.

Yes,

Said he,

Very true,

Here we separate,

But Harville and I shall soon be after you,

That is,

Harville,

If you're ready,

I am in half a minute.

I know you will not be sorry to be off.

I shall be at your service in half a minute.

Mrs Croft left them,

And Captain Wentworth,

Having sealed his letter with great rapidity,

Was indeed ready,

And had even hurried,

Agitated air,

Which showed impatience to be gone.

Anne knew not how to understand it.

She'd had the kindest good morning,

God bless you,

From Captain Harville,

But from him not a word,

Not a look.

He had passed out of the room without a look.

She had only time,

However,

To move closer to the table where he'd been writing.

When footsteps were heard returning,

The door opened,

And it was himself.

He begged their pardon,

But he had forgotten his glass,

And instantly crossing the room to the writing table,

He drew out a letter from under the scattered paper,

Placed it before Anne with eyes of glowing entreaty fixed on her,

And hastily collecting his gloves,

Was again out of the room,

Almost before Mrs Musgrove was aware of his being in it.

The work of an instant.

The revolution which one instance had made in Anne was almost beyond expression.

The letter,

With a direction hardly legible to Miss A.

E.

,

Was evidently the one which he had been folding so hastily.

While supposed to be writing only to Captain Benwick,

He had also been addressing her.

On the contents of that letter depended all which this world could do for her.

Anything was possible.

Anything might be defied rather than suspense.

Mrs Musgrove had little arrangements of her own at her own table.

To their protection she must trust,

And sinking into the chair which Captain Wentworth had occupied,

Anne succeeded to the very spot where he had leaned and written,

Her eyes devouring the following words.

I can listen no longer in silence.

I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach.

You pierce my soul.

I am half agony,

Half hope.

Tell me not that I am too late.

That such precious feelings are gone for ever.

I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it eight and a half years ago.

Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than a woman that his love has an earlier death.

I have loved none but you.

Unjust I may have been,

Weak and resentful I have been,

But never inconstant.

You alone,

Anne,

Have brought me to barth.

For you alone I think and I plan.

Have you not seen this?

Can you not fail to have understood my wishes?

I had not waited even these ten days could I have read your feelings as I think you must have penetrated mine.

I can hardly write.

I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me.

You sink your voice but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others.

Too good,

Too excellent creature.

You do us justice indeed.

You do believe there is true attachment and constancy amongst men.

Believe it to be most fervent,

Most undeviating.

F.

W.

Postscript.

I must go,

Uncertain of my fate,

But I shall return hither or follow your party as soon as possible.

A word,

A look,

Will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.